Notes
Bando, whose real given name was Tamotsu, was born on July 16th, 1895 in Tokushima, Japan. His mother died when he was only seven years old. Much affected by this loss, for the rest of his life he remained nostalgic about the maternal bond, and this shows in several of his female portraits. His father Yasutaro, in a managerial position with a maritime transport company in Osaka, was in a comfortable financial position and supported him unconditionally.
In 1913, he left for Tokyo to study under the master Fujishima Takeji, who had worked in France and Italy, at the Kawabata Institute of Research on painting.
After some success in Japanese exhibitions (Bunten, Teiten), he arouses the jury's curiosity with his technical mastery, evocative of Cezanne, but which does not yet show his personality that will later blossom in France. Bando writes at the time in his personal diary : " I doubt that I will really be able to express myself as I wish. In what way will I be able to reflect on canvas my own desire for purity ". This feeling of self-doubt, but also the desire to reach the limits of his creative possibilities, will stay with him for the rest of his life.
While still in Japan, Bando followed French creative movements passionately, through magazines of the time such as Shirakaba (the white birch), an important magazine specializing in all the avant-garde movements : at first post-impressionism, fauvism and then cubism.
It is highly likely that in 1921 in Tokyo he saw the exhibition of paintings chosen by Paul Claudel, who recently arrived in Japan as French Ambassador, and who showed a strong interest in all forms of Japanese painting, the Nihonga as well as the Yoga painting movements - one traditional, the other European in tendency.
Bando arrived in Paris in June, 1922, and met Foujita immediately. The same year, the latter, who was already well-known in France and at ease in the art world and society, was elected member of the Salon d'Automne jury. Up until 1924, they spent a lot of time together, sharing studios and housing.
In this milieu, Foujita behaved like a Sensei (Master) towards young Japanese painters. Through Foujita, he becomes friends with Ryuichi Suzuki, Roka (Luc) Hasegawa, Sei Koyanagi and Shikanosuke Ebihara, some of whom will be recognized once back in Japan. Foujita's already established success lent importance to their relationship.
Bando, a shy man always on the move between houses, was not accustomed to living with a group. This lack of lasting attachments finds itself in the painting of open spaces where little people and animals strive to exist. Even so, it is impossible to deny that Bando learnt much from Foujita. Through him he knew Kiki, some of whose letters and photos are part of his collection. She probably introduced him to Man Ray.
Despite this, Bando was disturbed that French critics always compared his art to Foujita's. Without knowing too much about japanese art, they often fell into the easy trap of comparing, lacking criteria and a sound basis to appreciate the sure and profound difference between Foujita and his " School ".
It is certainly one of the reasons why Bando left Montparnasse in 1924 for Pierrefitte, despite his profound attachment to Foujita. He was noticed and helped by Jeanne Leger Mongeot who recognized his talent. At that time, in 1924, the critic Andre Warnod discovered this personality, so different to Foujita's, where the precious exactness is animated by life : " We are not seeking to establish a comparison between Bando et Foujita ; it seems that Bando can make us rise another step in european-japanese art. Bando has a painters' temperament, and he expresses himself more as a painter than as a draughtsman. He does not have as much breeding as Foujita, but he was attached to relief. He was seeking to penetrate the science of volume, and succeeded in his attempt to portray in three dimensions. "
Although he also painted in a manner close to the European style, he lost nothing of his racial characteristics. Bando posesses the gift of ruthless precision, the ability to create a perfect illusion from the material he painted, whether it be the straw of a hat, the wool of a cloak or the cold hardness of porcelain. Press cuttings from 1922 to 1932 show that critics from all over the world (France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, U.S.A.) are rapidly recognizing him as an important painter.
Meanwhile it is interesting to note that several critics consider him as simply a rival of Foujita, or as a member of Foujita's " School ", while others, notably Gustave Kahn and Louis Leon Martin, recognize in him true talent as a painter of portraits, scenery, pastels and still life, exressing himself with a sometimes anxiously minute detail, but always true to life.
When, after Foujita and Koyanagi, Bando obtained a contract with the Cheron Gallery from 1924 untill the death of the Gallery owner in 1931, he sold well, but this was not sufficient to make him happy. His work of this period, while retaining the " Bando " character, expresses great solitude. Being then obliged by his father's death to earn his living, Bando took up again with the artistic milieu.
With the birth of his daughter Kimie in 1944, he becomes a caring father at home. His child's art education brought him great joy, even if it kept him away from parisian artistic life. Nevertheless we can see, in magnificent self-portraits with Kimie, an astonishing precision, profoundly psychological, which evokes that of the painter Kishida Ryusei who himself never made the trip to Europe.
Between 1951 and 1957, Kimie produced six personal exhibitions, one of which with her father. Bando is working hard, but does not link himself to a gallery. His health is fragile, and his wife's activities allow him not to have to sell his work. He exhibits less frequently.
He dies in 1973 following a fall down his stairs at home. He lies next to his wife who joined him in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in 1994.
